Hilt shook his head. He reached to his shoulder and his hand closed around empty air.
‘I told you, you should bring your sword,’ Goodwin said.
Hilt grunted. ‘No one likes a smart ass.’
More fearsome roars resounded around the chamber and that’s when Goodwin saw them: the shimmering lights. The Pharos had arrived.
‘FIRE AT WILL!!’ Hilt said. The Darklight leader shouldered a beam weapon and unleashed its fury.
Deafening mayhem exploded like thunder and Goodwin put his hands over his ears.
The first Darklight soldier fell, then another, and three more after that. Goodwin retreated to the crystal block and knew their time had finally come. He watched as Hilt marshalled his dwindling force. They’d had a good run, the commander and he. And at least Kara, and the rest of the civilians, and their Darklight protectors would live on. But Goodwin couldn’t help but wonder, for how long.
More black-clad soldiers fell. Hilt dodged an attack and helped one of the injured towards the water. They were the only ones left.
Goodwin ran to help him and then realised what they faced.
Ten shimmering blue-green lights hovered just off the ground on the shoreline, their hidden bulk glowing in the failing light.
One of the Pharos roared and the others joined in, making Goodwin’s legs quake in terror.
Hilt raised his weapon and depressed the trigger, which clicked. He was out of ammo.
‘So,’ Goodwin said. ‘This is it.’
‘Looks that way.’ Hilt adjusted his grip on the injured soldier they carried between them.
‘It was a pleasure knowing you, Commander,’ Goodwin said.
‘You, too, sir.’
‘Christ, we’re about to die, for God’s sake. Can you at least call me Richard?’
Hilt looked at him in consternation and Goodwin gave a wry smile. The commander never was one for small talk.
The injured soldier gave a groan. ‘Here they come.’
Goodwin looked up as the lights rushed at them and he closed his eyes … then a deep rumbling sound made him open them again.
The Pharos had stopped in their tracks and small rocks tumbled down from the chamber’s ceiling, located sixty feet above.
Tendrils of electricity washed over the ground beneath their feet and across the river behind them.
The tremors increased tenfold, thunder cracked, lightning flashed, and a blazing golden radiance swept down from nowhere into the crystal block, which exploded with dazzling light.
The earthquake continued, larger rocks fell, and Goodwin shouted, ‘What’s happening?!’
Moments later the tremors lessoned, but the transparent block remained ablaze with light, and electricity cascaded over its surface.
‘The Pharos,’ the soldier said. ‘They’re leaving.’
Goodwin and Hilt helped the wounded man onto dry land.
‘I don’t understand,’ Goodwin said, helping the soldier to lie down. ‘How are we still alive?’
‘I have no idea.’ Hilt looked back towards the river, where the crystal’s light shone bright in the dark.
The earthquake’s aftershocks ceased and Goodwin stood up and approached the crystalline block, his hand held up to shield his eyes from the glare.
Something hovered above the crystal. It almost looked like – Goodwin squinted as he tried to make it out – it almost looked like a being with wings. And then, as he watched, the golden light descended into the block.
Hilt joined him and said, ‘The crystal, it’s melting.’
‘Did you see that?’ Goodwin glanced at him and saw the Darklight commander had lowered his visor.
‘See what?’
Goodwin shook his head and took another step closer, until he was standing at the water’s edge, right next to the crystal block. He gazed down as the light slowly faded.
‘It is him,’ Goodwin said, peering down at the serene expression of a man, as the glowing crystal melted around him. ‘I can’t believe it.’ Goodwin leaned in close. ‘It’s him and I think – oh, my God – and I think he’s breathing.’
The man remained lying down, as the crystal retreated from his body, and then the crystal’s light flared golden bright – Goodwin and Hilt took a step back – and as the radiance died around them, a man was reborn; the Second Coming was at hand and the person once known as Riley Orton ... opened his eyes.
Author Note
If anyone is interested in the play on words Ruben used in this book, then you will find the idea comes from the author of the Presence Process, by Michael Brown, which is where I was first introduced to words written in reverse, although, Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversations With God trilogy also features similar usage. I believe both authors mention ‘evil’ is ‘live’ spelt backwards, which I expanded on to include love and lust, which become evol (evil) and tsul (soul) if spelt in reverse. If you think these plays on words are, in fact, mindless gibberish which your ego scoffs at as tripe, then you’re quite right, as your beliefs create your reality. Although, I ask you to consider this message I found, or perhaps rediscovered, might be a better word, as I imagine someone somewhere must have made the connection before me. If you “live time”, i.e. you live by thinking and reacting to events from the past and future, with your ego always looking for a destination, then you are living in reverse and not in the present moment. So, what happens if you ‘live time’? You’re living backwards and ‘emit evil’. Good eh? Well, maybe not if we’re thinking about the past or future all the time, as that means we’re emitting evil when we do: a scary thought!
Also, if I become present and live now, in the moment, or ‘Now I live on time’, you’re coming from the reverse to living forwards, so ‘Now I live on time’ becomes ‘Emit no evil I won’. Or you could mix it up and say ‘I now live on time’ which becomes ‘Emit no evil won I’, or ‘I emit no evil’ becomes ‘Live on time I’, or ‘I live on time’ becomes ‘Emit no evil I’, where ‘on’ means not ‘in’, but ‘outside’ of time, i.e. the present moment.
Of course, I think there will equally be a number of phrases that can be found that have more sinister overtones, but then, where there is one, there must be the other, and if you desire darkness rather than the light, you only have to seek it out. However, the only reason someone would do this, is because of past trauma and a skewed perception of ultimate reality and love itself.
A perfect example of this skewed perception of love is John Henry’s attachment to his wife, Ashley. Due to his parent’s cruelty during his childhood, John’s definition of love would have been skewed towards emotional pain. So, when he sought out romantic love, he sought the same love he received as a child, which was why John always dated women who would ultimately abuse him in the same fashion. His expression of love was allowing himself to be emotionally abused and manipulated. However, conversely, Ashley would have also received abuse as a child, but due to a myriad of different circumstances, she became someone who sought out partners upon whom she could inflict emotional abuse, or, from her perception, to express love. They were, for all intents and purposes, opposite sides of the same coin, both trapped in the past by actions forced upon them by another. In both instances, neither John nor Ashley are to blame for their actions towards each other, as they are reacting to the past and their emotional definition of love imprinted on them during their transition from infant to adult.
For Ashley and John, as it is for many, opposites really do attract, although both of them have something in common, the utilisation of sexual lust to suppress their emotional traumas.
And for those of you who believe in God, you may ask why he would do such a cruel thing to two otherwise perfectly healthy adults. Well, the reason is to show Ashley and John that what they feel and how they’ve been taught to love is perceptually wrong, and that the same problems will keep occurring in their life until they change and embrace a new healthier and more joyful reality, which includes altering their definition of love its
elf and resisting the lust which they use to suppress the attached trauma.
So, in reality, our relationships, romantic and otherwise, are opportunities, or divine gifts from our creator to embrace healthy change. And when this change occurs, we are, in effect, healing the generational imprinting passed down to us through the generations preceding us, as our parents and forebears are as blameless for their definition of love as those who came before, and after them. This healing may also be said to cure our unease about any given situation that previously traumatised us, or even, to put it another way, to cure our dis-ease. And for those of you who think violence, sexual abuse, control, manipulation and anything else objectionable cannot be someone’s definition of love, think again.
Or as Jesus so aptly put it, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.’
You might also say the generational imprinting passed down to us from our parents and ancestors is what you might call our ancient imprints, or perhaps, even our ... Ancient Origins.
If you’d like to know more about this fascinating insight into human behaviour, which I had absolutely no hand in deciphering, I would suggest reading Alchemy of the Heart and the aforementioned Presence Process, both authored by Michael Brown, whose work has also had a profound effect on my life, books and perception of my fellow man and woman.
If you are a devout Christian and would rather not have some of your fundamental beliefs challenged, then some of the books I’ve mentioned might not be suitable for you. Although I can highly recommend Jesus Calling by Sarah Young and The Holy Spirit by Susan Rohrer, the latter of which is a revelation in itself and helped in the forging of this book, and in particular, Sarah’s storyline.
Other books which have also deeply influenced me and Ancient Origins in equal measure are The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer, Life After Life by Raymond A. Moody, and Waking the Tiger (Healing Trauma) by Peter A. Levine, all three of which are astounding life-altering pieces of work. And lastly, but not least, is The Mammoth Book of Conspiracies by Jon E. Lewis, who also wrote Cover Ups. I imagine these last two books won’t surprise you, considering some of my plotlines; however, while some people deride conspiracies, law of averages say at least some of them will be true, and may even be proven with the proper research. And as one of my favourite TV shows likes to say, the truth is out there ...
Again, none of the books or authors mentioned above have any affiliation to me whatsoever; I just read and enjoyed their work. However, if you wish to read more things Ancient Origins, you will find a full set of appendices following this note (along with a final message). These appendices, which I include in every book, can sometimes explain and reveal some finer points of the Ancient Origins series, its story and characters, which I hope will enlighten and entertain in equal measure.
My best wishes to you always and all ways.
Your humble servant
Robert
A Final Message
Like most people, I have faced the struggles of life: from the deaths of loved ones to lost love, from crippling depression to the terrors of anxiety, from a painful and debilitating condition to the depths of despair, from addiction to the edge of sanity; but in the furthest reaches of darkness from which I thought I’d never escape, I found the light within that can never be quenched, that can never be broken, that can never die. And when I touched that inner light, that’s when I knew I was never, nor ever had been, alone. So, if you ever feel that way yourself – lost in the suffocating grip of never-ending darkness, or experiencing the painful emptiness that loneliness can bring – I tell you now, you are not alone, nor ever will be alone, for that same light is within us all – it’s within you now – and ‘alone’ is only a word, when you are so much more. In fact, you can never be alone, as alone is as illusory as the solid matter of the physical world that appears to surround us. And how can I be so certain of this, you may ask? It’s quite simple, as when we are alone, we are al-one – all one – and we will be all one, you and I, forever more.
Also by Robert Storey
Ancient Origins: Revelations
(Book One of Ancient Origins)
Ancient Origins: Dark Descent
(Book Two of Ancient Origins)
Ancient Origins: Let There Be Light
(Book Three of Ancient Origins)
Ancient Origins: Genesis
(Book Four of Ancient Origins)
Ancient Origins: The Tenth Protocol
(Book Five of Ancient Origins)
Ancient Origins: The Lost Prophet
(Book Six of Ancient Origins)
https://geni.us/robertstorey
About the Author
Robert Storey began work on what would become the Ancient Origins series in 2013. The series of six novels was completed in 2018.
Robert died a year later in March 2019.
For more information about Robert and his work, please visit:
fuse-books.com/robertstorey
IV
Appendices
APPENDIX A - ORGANISATIONS
Swiss Guard (Pontifical, or Papal Swiss Guard) – A Catholic military unit based in Vatican City. The Pontifical Swiss Guard is made up of male Catholics from the country of Switzerland; they must be unmarried and be between nineteen and thirty years of age. They serve to protect the Pope and the Papal Palace.
The Holy See (See of Rome) – Government of the Roman Catholic Church operating out of Vatican City. Oversees the governance of all Catholics and handles all diplomatic relations with other countries.
The Vatican – Informal term for the Holy See, or Vatican City.
NASA – The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (civilian space agency of the United States government) / www.nasa.gov
Knights of the Apocalypse – Catholic fundamentalists derived from an obscure religious sect / secret society, which existed for a short time in the late sixteen hundreds before being disbanded by the Roman Inquisition. Their leader, Agostino Gabrino, became known for disrupting religious ceremonies while wielding a sword and yelling “Ego sum Rex Gloriae”. He was labelled a madman and confined to a mental institution, or what served as one in the seventeenth century. Those that took up arms in his name called themselves the Knights of the Apocalypse. The main goal of the secret order was to protect the Catholic Church from the anticipated Antichrist.
Knights Templar – A Catholic military order sanctioned by the Holy See, circa 1118–1312. The Knights Templar were also known as Templars, Templar knights, and the Order of Solomon’s Temple, deriving from the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon; the latter title of which is ironic, as they are often cited as the organisation that helped found modern banking.
Roman Inquisition – The lesser known cousin of the Spanish Inquisition, the Roman Inquisition was created by the Roman Catholic Church in the fifteen hundreds to prosecute those deemed responsible for crimes against the Church and its doctrine. Its precursor was the Medieval Inquisition, which also spawned the Catholic Church’s Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions.
The Apocryphon – A Satanic organisation which has infiltrated Vatican City and the Roman Catholic Church.
BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) – Television, radio and multimedia network broadcaster operating in the United Kingdom and globally / www.bbc.co.uk
CNN (Cable News Network) – American television news channel / www.cnn.com
Fox News Channel (FNC) – American television news channel / www.foxnews.com
United Nations (UN) – International organisation for law, security, human & civil rights, political freedom and world peace / www.un.org
The Committee – A secret society of power elites operating outside the law. Little is known about the global organisation, its members, structure or purpose, however, its near limitless wealth and influence hints at a long and illustrious heritage.
GMRC (Global Meteor Response Council) – International organisation set up by the world’s nations for the
protection and preservation of humanity, civilisation and all life on Earth. Also known as the Response Council, or just, the Council. Consisting of twenty-five divisions, the majority of the GMRC’s policies and actions are carried out by a core of twelve divisions (see table below). Each of these divisions operates under one or two of the following three criteria:
PUBLIC: Activities disclosed to society
COVERT: Activities not disclosed to society
CLASSIFIED: Existence not disclosed to society
APPENDIX B - FACILITIES, UNITS & DESIGNATIONS
Counter-Assault Team (CAT) – Counterterrorism teams operated by the Secret Service are used to protect dignitaries from attack, and in the case of the President of the United States they are a heavily armed offensive force used to repel an attack aimed at their Commander in Chief.
Secret Service – Run by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the United States Secret Service is an armed protective force tasked with protecting the country’s leaders. The service, which is a federal law enforcement agency, also conducts investigations into criminals and its selection policy is a closely guarded secret.
The Bishop of Rome – Leader of the Catholic Church, also known as the Pope, His Holiness or Supreme Pontiff.
The Tenth Protocol – A GMRC administrative designation for the enactment of the final transition from the surface to the underground bases run by the Subterranean Programme, the largest Division within the GMRC.
Ancient Origins: Books 4 - 6 (Ancient Origins Boxset Book 2) Page 151
